Piper Kerman | |
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![]() Kerman at the University of Missouri in 2014 | |
Born | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | September 28, 1969
Alma mater | Smith College |
Occupations |
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Notable work | Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison |
Spouse | |
Website | piperkerman www |
Piper Eressea Kerman [1] (born September 28, 1969) is an American author. She was indicted in 1998 on charges of felonious money-laundering activities, and sentenced to 15 months' detention in a federal correctional facility, of which she eventually served 13 months. Her memoir of her prison experiences, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), was adapted into the critically-acclaimed Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013). Since leaving prison, Kerman has spoken widely about women in prison and problems with the federal prison system. She now works as a communication strategist for non-profit organizations.
Kerman was born in Boston into a family with a number of attorneys, doctors and educators. [2] She graduated from Swampscott High School in Swampscott, Massachusetts, in 1987, [3] and Smith College in 1992. [4] Kerman is a self-described WASP; however, she had a paternal grandfather who was Russian-Jewish. [4] [5]
In 1993, Kerman became romantically involved with Catherine Cleary Wolters (Nora Janson in her memoir: Laura Prepon's character Alex Vause in the series), [6] a heroin dealer working for an alleged Nigerian kingpin. [7] [8] Kerman laundered money for the drug operation. [7]
In 1998, Kerman was indicted for money laundering and drug trafficking and she pled guilty. [7] Starting in 2004, she served 13 months of a 15-month sentence at FCI Danbury, a minimum security prison located in Danbury, Connecticut. [9]
During her sentence, she built her website "The Pipe Bomb" to document her life behind bars. [10]
Kerman's best-selling memoir about her experiences in prison, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison , was published by Spiegel & Grau on April 6, 2010. A television adaptation of the same name created by Jenji Kohan, the Emmy award-winning creator of Weeds , premiered on July 11, 2013, on Netflix and aired for seven seasons. Kerman's character in the series ("Piper Chapman") is played by Taylor Schilling. Orange is the New Black has received critical acclaim and won four Emmy Awards. [11] [12]
Kerman serves on the board of the Women's Prison Association and is frequently invited to speak to students of creative writing, criminology, gender and women's studies law, and sociology, and to groups, like the American Correctional Association's Disproportionate Minority Confinement Task Force, federal probation officers, public defenders, justice reform advocates and volunteers, book club and formerly and currently incarcerated people.[ citation needed ]
On February 10, 2014, Kerman received the 2014 Justice Trailblazer Award from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Center on Media, Crime & Justice. [13]
On February 25, 2014, Kerman testified at a hearing on "Reassessing Solitary Confinement" before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights chaired by Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin. [14]
On August 4, 2015, Kerman testified at a hearing on "Oversight of the Bureau of Prisons: First-Hand Accounts of Challenges Facing the Federal Prison System" before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Senator Ron Johnson. [15]
Since 2015, Kerman has worked as a communications strategist for nonprofits. [16]
Since her prison sentence, Kerman has spoken publicly many times on behalf of women in corrections and about her experience. [17]
In 2019, she appeared as a guest in the last episode of Orange Is the New Black in the last scene in the Ohio prison, when Piper visited Alex. Kerman sat two seats to the left of Alex as a convict visited by her husband (in real life). She makes a cameo appearance in the show’s opening credits as the convict who blinks.
Kerman has said, "I'm bisexual, so I'm a part of the gay community (LGBT+)". [18] She came out around the age of 18, and identified herself as a lesbian during most of her youth. [18] On May 21, 2006, [1] Kerman married writer Larry Smith, a few months after he started publishing Smith Magazine . [1] Kerman and Smith live in Columbus, Ohio, and she teaches writing classes at the Marion Correctional Institution and the Ohio Reformatory for Women in nearby Marysville, Ohio. [19] [20] She was awarded the 'Humanist Heroine of the Year Award' from the 'Humanist Hub' group at Harvard University. [21]
The Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury is a low-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Danbury, Connecticut. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp that houses minimum-security female offenders.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago is a United States federal prison in Chicago, Illinois, which holds male and female prisoners of all security levels prior to and during court proceedings in the Northern District of Illinois, as well as inmates serving brief sentences. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
The Federal Transfer Center (FTC Oklahoma City) is a United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice, and houses offenders and parole violators who have yet to be assigned to a permanent prison facility. Most inmates who enter the federal prison system come through the facility.
Larry Smith is an American author and editor, and publisher of Smith Magazine. He is best known for developing the best-selling book series Six-Word Memoirs, a literary subgenre that took on a life of its own in popular culture as publications began holding reader contests and publishing the results. The form has been described as "American haiku." Smith credits Ernest Hemingway's reputed shortest story, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn", with inspiring the viral literary movement.
Orange Is the New Black is an American comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum security federal prison. Produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television, Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2013. Its seventh and final season was released on July 26, 2019.
The Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville(FCI Aliceville) is a low-security United States federal prison for female inmates in Alabama. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It is located in unincorporated Pickens County, between Aliceville and Pickensville, and also includes a satellite prison camp for minimum-security inmates.
The second season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 6, 2014, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 51 and 60 minutes, with a 90-minute finale. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison is a 2010 memoir by American author Piper Kerman, which tells the story of her money laundering and drug trafficking conviction and subsequent year spent in a federal women's prison.
The first season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 11, 2013, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 51–60 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. Created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan. In July 2011, Netflix was in negotiations with Lionsgate for a 13-episode TV adaptation of Kerman's memoirs. The series began filming in the old Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center in Rockland County, New York, on March 7, 2013. The title sequence features photos of real former female prisoners including Kerman herself.
Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire is a 2010 book by Robert Perkinson, published by Metropolitan Books.
Piper Elizabeth Chapman is the protagonist of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. The character is based on Piper Kerman, author of the non-fiction book Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, upon which the series is based. Schilling was nominated for awards in both comedy and drama categories for this role.
The third season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 11, 2015, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 53–60 minutes, with a 90-minute finale. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
Alex Vause is a fictional character played by Laura Prepon on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. The character is loosely based on the real ex-girlfriend of Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison. Before her arrest, Vause worked for an international drug cartel and was in a relationship with protagonist Piper Chapman, who once transported drug money for her during their travels. Vause is portrayed as the catalyst for Chapman's indictment. She is reunited with her ex-lover in federal prison, nearly a decade after the events that led to their breakup. Her relationship with Chapman is reignited, as they carry out a tumultuous love affair in prison. Vause is noted for her pragmatism, forthrightness, wit and veiled vulnerability. She is a main character in seasons one, three, four, five, six, and seven and a recurring character in season two.
The sixth season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 27, 2018, at 12:00 am PDT in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 50 and 84 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
The seventh and final season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on July 26, 2019, at 12:00 am PDT in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 55 and 89 minutes. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series was created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
The fourth season of the American comedy-drama television series Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix on June 17, 2016, at 12:00 am PST in multiple countries. It consists of thirteen episodes, each between 54–60 minutes, with a 77-minute finale. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), about her experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The series is created and adapted for television by Jenji Kohan.
"Lesbian Request Denied" is the third episode of the first season of the American comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (OITNB), based on Piper Kerman's memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010), regarding her time at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison. The episode was released on Netflix on July 11, 2013, along with the rest of the first season. It was written by Sian Heder, and is one of two OITNB episodes directed by actress and director Jodie Foster.
Alice Marie Johnson is an American criminal justice reform advocate and former federal prisoner. She was convicted in 1996 for her involvement in a Memphis cocaine trafficking organization and sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 2018, after serving 21 years in prison, she was released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville, after President Donald Trump granted her clemency, thereby commuting her sentence, effective immediately.
Topeka Kimberly Sam is an American advocate for criminal justice reform and a former federal prisoner. She was sentenced to over 10 years in prison in January 2013, after pleading guilty to her role in a drug trafficking conspiracy. Upon her early release from the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury in 2015, Sam became involved in helping women transition back into society after incarceration. Her advocacy has garnered widespread recognition and awards. President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Sam on December 23, 2020.